OFFSHORE- It was a tough week of fishing for the first part of the week; though reports did seem to pick up a bit on Wednesday with a little north wind blowing down. Sailfish reports have been very slow for the most part, but the Wednesday reports did include improved sailfish catches. Conditions look good for Thursday/Friday for the West Palm Beach Fishing Club's "Silver Sailfish Derby" so expect improved catches of sailfish as some of the best in the business fish to the edges of the boundaries in search of the sails. If the weather doesn't group up and push a bigger concentration of fish down(as a lot are hoping/expecting); don't be surprised if the winners of the tournament pick away at the sailfish from the Juno Beach Pier to Jupiter Inlet in 150-250' of water. Day in and day out that is never a bad area to try and get some sailfish bites. As usual, the best baits for the sailfish baits will be small blue runners and goggle eyes fished under the kite. Dolphin bite has been very slow this week; with only a small scattering of fish being caught. Kingfish are scattered up and down the 120' ledge from south of Palm Beach Inlet to north of Jupiter Inlet. It isn't necessarily big schools of smaller school size kingfish; but rather loose groupings of larger fish (some of them pushing forty plus pounds) . Diamond Jigs and knocker rig sardines have been working well on the kingfish. Bottom fishing reports were a bit slower this week; but a few good mutton reports did trickle in. Last week the muttons seemed to group up on the deep side of the 120' ledge; while this week they seemed to scatter between 80-100'. A handful of cobia do remain mixed in with the snapper. Sardines remain the bait of choice on the bottom; with squid a good second for all around action.

INSHORE- The best reports inshore continue to be from those targeting black drum and sheepshead around seawalls and boat docks in the ICW and Loxahatchee River with live shrimp. Mixed in with the drum and sheepshead will be a few snook and the occasional redfish. A basic slip rig is good for presenting the shrimp, as is a small jighead (The "yellowtail candy" jighead works very well for this). Best docks will have a fair amount of structure and some deep water either under or close to the dock. The Munyan Island and Hobe Sound flats continue to produce a few fish, with Hobe Sound probably being the little better choice of spots. No reports to speak of on pompano inshore this week, but this front could push some of them inshore. Keep an eye out for the pomps "skipping" out behind the boat wake; and keep a Doc's Goofy Jig ready in case you see some. Catch and release snook action had popped off a bit with the warm weather, but expect this cooler weather to slow them back down a bit.

SURF/PIER- The surf fishing could really benefit from a few good strong cold fronts. Reports from farther north (Fort Pierce to Vero Beach) sound very good; but our fishing has been a bit slow to start the week. Although, reports did seem to improve slightly Wednesday night after a day of north wind. Best surf reports for our more local area continue to be from Jupiter Island/Hobe Sound. Bluefish and jacks will be the most consistent; especially early in the morning and then again late in the afternoon. The GT Ice Cream and "Pelicans" continue to be big producers for both. POmpano action remains a bit on the slow side overall. The Juno Beach Pier has been producing a very few Spanish Mackerel, occasional Kingfish, and some Bonita (If Bonita on the pier in January doesn't make you scratch your head a bit I don't know what will!) Diamond jigs and swimming plugs (Rapala X-Raps and Yo-Zuri Mag Minnows) remain solid choices on the pier. As in the surf, the best action from the pier will be early in the morning and then again late in the afternoon.